The sport of bicycling enjoys widespread enthusiastic popularity throughout the world. The advent of the lightweight thin-tired bicycle greatly fosters the sport and encourages extended bicycle travel by both individual and group participants in areas often remote from repair facilities. To be able to achieve distance with minimum effort and encumbrance, the rider desires to travel with as little equipment as possible. It is essential that any repair material be small, light in weight, and efficient. Despite high quality equipment, a relatively common occurrence is the failure or blow-out of a tire tube resulting in a flat tire and immobility. Immediate patching of the failed tube to correct the fault is often not practical, and instead the rider will generally carry a spare inner tube with which to replace a damaged one.
Tire inner tubes in general use are equipped with one of two types of attached tube inflation valves, either a SCHRADER or PRESTA valve. Both of these valves are vulcanized to the tire tube and function similarly. The body of the SCHRADER valve, however, is of larger diameter than its PRESTA counterpart. In addition, the valve stem in the SCHRADER design is recessed within the valve body whereas the valve stem projects above the valve body in the PRESTA design. These differences must be accommodated when inflating a tire tube equipped with a particular inflation valve. Once replaced on the bicycle wheel, there remains the task of properly inflating the tire tube. Hand air pumps are available for this purpose, but it is desirable to have a quicker, easier and more efficient way of inflating the replaced tire tube.
Applicant's tire inflation system meets the above requirements.